CCC vs Thoiry

CCC vs Thoiry

It was a beautiful day to travel down to Thoiry for our first encounter of 2014 with our friendly rivals. After picking up a friend of a friend of a friend at the train station, we headed south still one player short. Upon arriving at the Thoiry clubhouse, we learnt that our 10th player would be none other than Mark Moodley. Perhaps we should turn up short of players more often!

Still one player short, the match began with Chantilly in the field. Regan’s first delivery was sent back over his head for four, and the innings generally went downhill from there for CCC, but here are some bowling highlights:
- Prana picked up a couple of wickets. A nice reward for some accurate bowling.
- Nick Clarke bowled for the first time in 2014, taking one wicket. Form is temporary, but class is permanent. The form will return!
- Mark Moodley showed us that he’s not just a batsman with a wicket too.
- Rob Oakley bowled well, taking a well deserved wicket (you’ll struggle to see a better caught & bowled).
- George Wordsley took a wicket from his first ball for CCC, thanks to Dominic’s superb, one-handed catch.
- Denzil and Jimmy bowled. There were no highlights as such, unless you play for Thoiry, in which case there were several highlights that went sailing over the boundary.

So, Thoiry reached 244 (yes, that’s 244) after their 35 overs. In the past, Chantilly have struggled to even reach 100. Could this be the day they crack the 200 mark? Here is a breakdown of the CCC innings.
- Rob Oakley and and Moodley opened, scoring 25 against some quality opening bowling.
- Prana’s 2014 struggles with the bat continued with another duck. It’ll come right soon Prana!
- George Wordsley showed good potential for the future, but didn’t quite manage to hang around long enough to get into double figures.
- Jimmy and Mark managed a 52 run partnership (95% of the runs coming from Mark’s bat) until Mark was caught, having scored yet another half century.
- Dominic’s leg injury flared up after facing one delivery, bringing George back to the crease as a runner. It didn’t take Jimmy long before he ran Dominic out, or perhaps George, it was all very confusing!
- Jimmy capitalized on facing the part-time bowlers throughout the middle overs, adding 35 to the total.
- Jean-Francois reached double figures while showing us his hitting power with a couple of huge fours.
- Jack Oakley and Denzil kept their wickets intact, to see Chantilly bat out their 35 overs (a rare feat that CCC can take away as a positive from the match).

So in the end, Thoiry’s total was just too big, and Chantilly finished 70 runs short, even though they reached 174, one of their biggest totals in recent memory. Four matches into the season, they are yet to win, and yet to field 11 players. Will their fortunes turn around against Aulnay on June 1st?